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Education funding issue gains momentum; petitions being circulated in six-county area

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By JACK PALMER

palmer@crescent-news

A proposed constitutional amendment which would establish a new process for determining how to fund Ohio's public schools appears to be gaining momentum around the area.

"If the legislature can fund it, I think it has promise," said Defiance City Schools superintendent Mike Struble, whose board of education will discuss the issue at Monday's meeting. "At the very least it needs to get on the November ballot so people can discuss and debate it."

The proposed amendment is supported by 12 education advocate organizations including the Ohio Parent Teacher Association, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, Ohio Education Association and Ohio School Boards Association.

"The state legislature has not responded appropriately to four decisions of the state Supreme Court," said Ayersville Local superintendent Tod Hug, referring to the series of rulings on the DeRolph case declaring unconstitutional Ohio's method of funding education. "This amendment will reduce reliance on property taxes to fund our schools, which will result in fewer local school levies."

Hug should know about levies. Voters in his district have rejected both a property tax levy and an income tax in the last six months.

"I've been a superintendent for four years and run five levy campaigns," said Hug. "I got into this business to be an educator, not a levy operator."

If approved, a new legal principle would be established in the Ohio Constitution to provide a high quality education for every student.

"This is a much higher standard of proof for constitutionality than previously used," said Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA) executive director Dr. Jerry Klenke, who spoke to a group of area superintendents and board members last week at Northwest State Community College.

The amendment would require the state to provide funding levels based on student needs for all types of students, including special education, vocational education, gifted or economically disadvantaged.

"One of the more important parts of this amendment is that it bases education funding on what it actually costs," said Liberty Center Local Schools teacher Jerry Oberhaus, who serves as president of the 10,000-member Northwestern District of the Ohio Education Association.

"We don't build bridges by saying, 'Here's $1 million and if it costs $1.5 million you have to find a way to come up with the rest of the money.' I think everyone is hungry for a fixed school-funding system."

Oberhaus asserted that the proposed amendment would provide local schools with sufficient funds for not only special education students, but for gifted students.

"Gifted education, to me, has been largely neglected," he stated. "When schools don't have enough money, gifted programs are among the first to be cut."

Under the amendment, the local share of the amount needed to fund schools would be a uniform 20 mills for all school districts. All districts will receive growth on the 20 mills taxed on property valuation.

"School districts would need fewer levies in the future as a result of modest growth from state aid and the minimum local effort of 20 mills," said Hug.

The proposed amendment also provides for significant property tax relief for senior citizen and disabled homeowners.

No school taxes would be assessed on the first $40,000 market value of their homestead property. If the average value is $80,000, senior citizen and disabled owners would receive a 50 percent reduction in school taxes. If the average value is $120,000, the reduction would be 33 percent.

"The property tax relief is a very important part of this," said Oberhaus.

Proponents need to submit 402,276 signatures statewide to the secretary of state in order to assure a place on the Nov. 6 ballot.

"Our board endorsed it last month," said Hicksville superintendent Kevin Miller. "Every district in the state has been asked to obtain one petition signature and donate $1 for every student. For us, that would be 998 signatures and $998.

"We felt our strength would be a united response, so we encouraged all our school employees to be involved," he continued. "Every one, including administrators and board members, were asked to obtain 12 signatures."

In addition, noncertified employees were asked to contribute $5 each, while teachers, administrators and board members were asked to donate $10, $25 and $50, respectively. Taking a leadership role, Miller assessed himself $200 as district superintendent.

"Not everyone obtained 12 signatures, but several got more," said Miller. "One obtained 42. In all, we have obtained over 1,030 signatures and raised $1,300 so far."

"The Hicksville district did a great job," said Hug. "We are a little late getting started because of our levy campaign, but we plan to work with our teachers' association and get petitions out. All we are asking of the public is to sign so the issue can be decided by the people."

"I know other districts are ahead of us, but we thought it would confuse people if we brought this up during our levy campaign," echoed Struble. "But we plan to move ahead with it now."

The proposed amendment has met with some resistance at the board level in at least two districts -- Napoleon Area and Holgate Local.

A resolution to support the issue was rejected by a 3-2 vote of the Napoleon Area Board of Education in March.

"There is no provision for where the state will find the money," said board member Mike Wesche, who voted against the resolution. "That concerns me."

Wesche said he was also uneasy about the state assuming more responsibility to fund schools.

"Typically when the state assumes more responsibility, they also assume more control," he said. "More state control means less control for local school boards, and I don't think that's a good thing.

"I personally have a concern about making legislative changes through the constitutional process," added Wesche.